


I Need a Hiro

by CaffeinatedCopyeditor



Series: Happy, Happier, Happiest [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Could also be considered, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I've almost finished writing this so updates should be regular, Memory Alteration, Mourning, Owada Daiya Lives, Post THH, Post-Canon Fix-It, Self-Indulgent, Some characters don't show up till later chapters, Swearing, Triggers will be at the start of each chapter but the main ones are, somewhat THH canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28893540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeinatedCopyeditor/pseuds/CaffeinatedCopyeditor
Summary: As the ultimate Clairvoyant, Hiro gets visions. Somehow, that's not the weirdest thing about him. He's still trying to deal with his lost memories, the trauma of the game, and the destruction Junko left behind. Through past and future,  one well-meaning idiot tries to keep it together long enough to protect his friends.(A Hiro-centric, family-bonding, happily-ever-after fic)Complete :)
Relationships: Asahina Aoi & Fukawa Touko & Hagakure Yasuhiro & Kirigiri Kyouko & Naegi Makoto & Togami Byakuya
Series: Happy, Happier, Happiest [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2136549
Comments: 7
Kudos: 49





	1. Clairvoyance

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> This story takes place between two timelines, past and future, so don't worry if its a little confusing to start with. Things should get cleared up later.
> 
> Additional Triggers for this chapter: descriptions of destruction, very brief mention of dead body, mentions of cigarettes/alcohol (None actually used here, just mentioned), references to canonical deaths

PAST

They walk in silence for a while, shocked. The air is ash, and the Hiro feels the lifeless dirt crunch like glass beneath his sandals. The world is clearly in ruin. Even though it still seems false, wrong, he cannot deny what he is seeing.

They move in a trudge. It isn’t despair he’s feeling, but it isn’t not despair. It’s like… some kind of…Hiro doesn’t know. The words are beyond him. It just feels bad, man. Every now and then, someone stops to look at something or take a breather, and the rest of the group grind to a halt. Nobody wants to split up now. Even if they aren’t the most cohesive group, they only have each other.

Usually its Kyoko stopping. Examining a building, the road…a body. The stutter-stop of their progression is clearly getting on Byakuya’s nerves but for once he doesn’t say anything. Whenever someone does muster the courage to talk, Hiro feels like he can hardly understand what they are saying. His head is fuzzy, in an all too familiar way. Either he’s totally just confused, which is pretty likely, or some kind of vision is headed his way. He really wishes he had his crystal ball.

Scratching his neck, he stops at a deep looking puddle of murky water. Not ideal, but it would have to do.

A box within a box, within a gleaming hall. The inner lock is broken, the outer lock still sealed. Between the wooden panels, a die, six-sided.

‘What was that, Hiro?’ Kyoko asks, staring at him with those piercing eyes of hers.

‘Oh, um.’ Hiro falters. ‘What did I say?

Byakuya is already walking away, Toko hot on his heels. Hiro reluctantly starts moving again, along with the others.

‘Really, Kirigiri, I thought you knew better than to listen to his nonsense.’

‘Hey!’ Hiro splutters. ‘Don’t insult my nonsense! My predictions are totally trustworthy!’

‘You said something about a box.’ Kyoko tells him, ignoring Byakuya.

Most of them are looking at him now and, aw man. They all look so sad. There are tear’s in Aoi’s eyes, and Makoto is still worn out from…well, from everything. Hiro never knows how to handle it when they turn on him like this. He knows, logically, that he’s only a few years older but they always look so young.

‘Oh yeah. I just had a vision is all. It’ll take some time to turn that into a full-on prediction, but I’ll let you know if I figure it out or whatever.’

‘A vision?’ Aoi pipes up, eager for a distraction. ‘Of what?’

‘Yes. Describe it.’ Instructs Kyoko.

‘Oh, you can’t be serious.’ Byakuya huffs. ‘We have to keep moving. You can’t indulge in this-‘

‘Byakuya.’ Makoto cuts him off, with a tired wave of hand. ‘Haven’t you learnt by now that Kyoko knows what she’s doing?'

Apparently unsatisfied, but effectively silenced, Byakuya looks away. It’s as though he’s searching the horizon for something, but Hiro’s pretty sure he’s just annoyed. Hiro can read other people pretty easily, but following conversations is much harder. He just feels confused.  
‘I mean, it would be kind of ridiculous for me to give a prediction now, after just giving that whole speech about my instincts and hope. Besides, I thought you didn’t believe in all that stuff?’

‘Really?’ Kyoko tilts her head. ‘I trust in school’s judgement. If you were at Hope’s Peak you were there for a reason. But Byakuya’s right – you can explain whilst we walk.’

They set off again, with Kyoko listening intently even while Hina leans against her for support. And its…weird, frankly. Usually someone would have told him to shut up by now. Did they all get possessed when they left the school? Even Makoto’s being weird, all quiet and stuff, but maybe he’s just tired. Maybe everyone’s just tired. Hiro really needs to find these kids some place to take shelter.

But first, he has to do his job. And if these guys are going to take him seriously for the first time, then he’s going to show them that he’s worth it. He doesn’t know a lot about a lot, but this is his thing. Or at least, he tries to tell himself that.

‘So, uh, it was mostly imagery. A box, made of oak. The oak suggests strength, and the shape of the container might suggest the presence of something precious, like jewellery, right?’ He couldn’t help but smile when Kyoko nodded her understanding. ‘So, within the box was another box, also oak, but the lock on it was already broken, whereas the larger box was still locked. This might mean that something needs to be obtained, but is being protected. Or, that there’s one challenge defeated, but another yet to come. Maybe…maybe it could be more literal.’

‘L-literal how?’ asks Toko. Hiro hadn’t realised that she had moved to stand next to him, or that she was interested in this kinda stuff at all. Maybe it’s a writers thing?

‘Oh, like. One door unlocked, one left to unlock, you know?’

‘We unlocked the door out of the school…’ Makoto murmurs, thoughtfully. ‘Are you saying we’re going to have to escape again?’

‘I hope not!’ Hiro splutters. ‘I wouldn’t go through that again if you paid me, and that’s saying something! But I actually got the sense that it was a good thing. There was a very radiant energy outside the box. And, the second lock was different. Like, alive? Oh! And there was a dice between the boxes!’

‘What kind of dice?’ Toko asks.

‘I can’t believe even you’re getting involved.’ Byakuya spits, but there’s no real venom behind it.

‘A six-sided dice.’ Says Hiro.

‘Like the six of us?’ asks Makoto.

‘Oh, woah! I didn’t even notice that.’

A cold wind blows around them, as they fall into a steady silence. The streets here are entirely ravaged, none of the buildings look much like anything anymore. No structure, just rubble.

‘Could you attempt to see more than that?’ Kyoko asks. ‘We could use some guidance.’

‘Well, I usually could, for a price.’ Hiro says with a smile. ‘But the thing is, I actually can’t. I’d need cards or a ball or something to look intentionally. Without any of my equipment I can’t channel it, so visions come and go, you know?’

‘Convenient.’ Byakuya snarls. ‘Along with your accuracy rate, that renders you almost entirely useless, don’t you think?’

Yasuhiro told himself that he didn’t agree, and that he was freaking awesome, thank you very much. Despite what everybody said, he just couldn’t accept those words as true.

FUTURE

Every Sunday, Yasuhiro goes for a long walk.

He gets coffee from the small café near his flat, and then donuts from Hina’s favourite shop about halfway to the park. He ties his hair back with bandana, wears a mask, and keeps his shoulders slouched. He usually finds getting recognised pretty exciting, but Sunday’s are Hiro Time.

He spends a lot of it thinking. Firstly, about how awesome fresh air is, because the novelty never wears off. Yasuhiro knows that, logically, its not as fresh as it once was. He doesn’t mind much – it’s a fucking improvement, and he’ll take that. So yeah, that’s what he thinks of first. Then he thinks about whatever he sees, for a bit. That tree? Looks cool. Woah! She has a fun dress. Nice! Cool bug!

And then he’ll get to the park, and see the body-builders who work out on the green, and he’ll think of Ogr- Sakura. Hiro actually thinks about Sakura a lot. Mostly, he thinks about a broken bottle in his hand, and a bloody body at his feet. He thinks about the certainty that he’d have to go through some kind of whacky punishment because he knew, he knew, he wasn’t smart enough to talk his way out of it. He thinks about standing in that elevator, hands shaking, begging the unknowable ether for forgiveness. He had tasted despair in that moment, just a little. Just enough.

Hiro thinks a lot about forgiveness, when he thinks about Sakura. Those kinds of thought are inspired by a rad gal like her. Hina forgave them for the way they treated her, but Hiro isn’t so sure she’d feel the same. He certainly knows what its like to be the butt of the group’s jokes. And she was cool, he knows that now. Everything she did for them. He would never be able to pull off something like that. And he thinks that he never really knew her, and he still probably doesn’t, and he thanks Hina for kicking the word ‘Ogre’ out of his vocabulary before he stained his soul any further than he had. Speaking ill of the dead is no fucking joke – ghosts can get real harsh real fast.

Ghosts…he never did see any. He was always ready to run and hide from their creepy little spectral hands. Sometimes, he would glimpse things. Just changes in shadow or flashes of pink at the edge of his vision. But, like, that school’s layout was super confusing, and the decoration was totally weird! Even Hiro has trouble convincing himself that those were full on spectres.

And maybe he heard them whispering, once or twice, but that doesn’t mean anything. The occult is this whole, other, spooky-scary thing! Hagakure Yasuhiro does NOT mess with that. He doesn’t. He won’t.

Thinking about it makes something at the corner of his memory itch. The same way it does when he’s playing videogames with Makoto, or chess with Kyoko. The kind of tug that suggests that something or someone is missing from this trail of thought.

There’s no point mourning lost memories, but maybe he’ll treat himself to an extra donut.

PAST

Hiro sits on the steps outside the house, his fingers twitching in his lap. He desperately wants something to do with his hands. Some cards to shuffle, a crystal to rub…a cigarette. Something to take him away from all of this. He hadn’t smoked for about a year before he even joined Hope’s Peak but, well, all things considered he thinks he deserves it. Or a beer. Maybe several.

When they left Hope’s Peak, they did so with duffle bags full of food, drinks and blankets. No room for his divination supplies. At the time, he had thought he wouldn’t need them. Its not like there’s anybody around who’s willing to pay for a reading. They’ve definitely heard distant voices from time to time…but Hiro would really rather not meet those people. He has a bad feeling about it. He’s been having a lot of bad feelings, lately.

Its super weird, because his predictions have never been this common. Ever since they left Hope’s Peak it’s as though something has been unlocked. Its hard to remember if it was like this before the game. Everything from that time feels dream-like now. But, he figures, its probably something to with the pathways available. In the game, there were only so many ways things could go. Out here, there are options, branching choices. They just make him want a drink even more.

There are kids inside the house, though, so even if he had a beer he’d like to think he’d do the right thing. Hiro’s not exactly suitable to be a parent, but he can’t think of any other way around it. Taka would know what to do, here. He’d take charge. Heck, even Mondo knew how to lead. He spent half his time yelling out orders like he was born for it. At the memory, Hiro breathes out a ragged breath. They were both so fucking young. Even now, everyone is following Makoto, another kid.

Makoto had suggested sleeping under the stars, so that they could see the sky. Hiro had stepped up.

Hope is a wonderful thing, but so is not being killed by random apocalypse-warriors, so Hiro had led them here instead. The house isn’t his own. It didn’t even belong to anyone they knew. Its just the closest building with walls that aren’t falling over. Inside, the rest of the survivors are sleeping. Or at least, he hopes they are. Even if he’s trying to take on some responsibility, he’s not about to tuck them in and check that they’re really unconscious. He isn’t their mom.

Man, he misses his mom.

With all that said, he’s determined to get these teens somewhere safe, if such a place does exist. He doubts it, sometimes, but he can’t allow such thought to reach him now. No, he knows it will be okay! There’s a light out there, a gleaming hall. He just has to find it. Hagakure Yasuhiro, the Ultimate Clairvoyant, will save the day!  
He stands up and pumps his fist in the air. Polluted wind continues to rumble down the destroyed street. Maybe, he thinks, I should just get some sleep.


	2. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Violence, genocide Jack, brief discussion of multiple personalities (Still from Hiro's Pov, so a very uneducated viewpoint), Guns, mentions of fire related trauma and other trauma
> 
> Hope you enjoy! I know Hiro isn't exactly a popular character, but I love him!

FUTURE

Hakagure never quite understood Toko Fukawa.

Part of that was that she was never really the kind of person who wanted to be understood. She wrote her feelings out, disguised behind metaphors and masks. Characters who she could pour herself into. She was never really the sharing-is-caring sort.

Which sucks, in Hiro’s opinion, because sharing really is caring. It feels good! Fuck knows he talks plenty. Toko knows all about his mom, and his dad, and his debts. All of them know all his mess. But even after all these years, he barely knows Toko. He still cares about her. He wants her to be okay. He just doesn’t understand her.

This thought occurs to him as her fist flies past his face.

‘Nice one, Toko!’ yells Hina.

Maybe he should be paying a little more attention. Sparring totally sucks though. They all picked it up after, well, all that nonsense. They figured they ought to be able to defend themselves, though mostly it was another excuse to hang out. Hiro always got paired with Makoto or Toko, since they were just as hopeless as himself when it came to this sort of thing. Byakuya, Syo, Kyoko and Hina usually fought amongst themselves, since they were more adept. But right now, everyone seemed quite content to watch Hiro make a fool of himself.

‘Fight back, idiot!’ Byakuya seethes from the side-lines.

Dodging another of her haphazard punches, Hiro drops low and attempts to kick out one of her legs. She jumps neatly over it, and he falls on his ass. Toko, breathless, goes to sloppily kick him whilst he’s down. He grabs her ankle, and pulls her down too.

‘H-hey!’ she whines. ‘That’s cheating!’

‘No way! You totally weren’t playing fair.’

‘You’re both awful.’ Hina says cheerfully, stepping over to them. ‘But there’s plenty of time for improvement!’

Grumbling, they move out of the way so that Byakuya and Kyoko can have a turn. In truth, Hiro is relieved. He never really enjoyed either kind of exercising. Exorcizing? Whatever. He folds his legs, preparing to do a little meditation whilst he waits. His thoughts drift to food. They always get donuts after practice. Mmmmmm.

‘S-stop salivating!’ Toko spits.

‘Sorry, sorry. Just thinking about donuts.’

‘Heh. Yeah, that’s m-my favourite part too.’ She offers him a wobbly smile.

‘Oh yeah? What flavour are you going to get?’

‘Y-you tell me.’

Hiro thinks about it for a moment, really trying to concentrate.

‘Vanilla!’

‘Wrong. My f-f-favourite is hazelnut.’ She looks smug for a second, then frowns a little. ‘Vanilla is her favourite flavour.’

Oh.

He never has to ask who Toko means when she says ‘her’. Everyone knows. Literally everyone, after the broadcast. Hiro always struggles to wrap his head around Toko’s situation. He’d tried to do some research. Read up on how it worked and such, but none of it stuck. Homework was never really his strong suit. He may not totally understand her, but he rarely understands anything. Including himself.

‘I think I’ll get Hazelnut, too.’ Hiro grins.

She smiles back.

‘Obviously. It’s the b-best.’

PAST  
Oh fuck. Oh FUCK!

Its all gone to shit.

Hiro’s running, or trying to, but fitness was never his strong suit. He can hear screaming – Hina? Please, please don’t be Hina. They were all meant to stay together, but he’d fallen behind, and now he’s all alone out here with…those things.

He didn’t get a good look. He didn’t need to. One glimpse of the colour scheme was enough. Half black, half white, red eye. Monokuma.

Not just one. A crowd of bear faces peering at them. The bodies were human – maybe wearing masks? He hadn’t had time. Makoto had yelled to run, so they’d ran, and now… and now…

Where is everyone???

Hiro tells himself that they are okay, that they have to be okay, and wishes yet again that it weren’t him in this situation. Sakura could kick all these bears’ butts! Celeste could probably talk her way out of this. Heck, even Chihiro could probably run fast enough.

Instead, its just him. He doesn’t know how he survived where they didn’t. It isn’t fair. It doesn’t seem probable. Despite how unlikely his survival was and is, he doesn’t plan on giving up any time soon.

Then he trips.

The moment between his shoe hitting the stone and his face hitting the dirt is one of the scariest he’s ever experienced. Its over. He knows it is. Before he can think to get up there’s a gun barrel against his back, and laughter around him. Three separate voices. The rest must have gone after the others.

‘Do you feel it…’ croaks one of them. ‘Do you feel the despair of it all?’

Hiro’s brain fires at a mile a minute, offering about a million different useless answers. Yes, I feel it. No, I don’t. If I say yes will you let me go? Who are you? Please don’t shoot.

Instead, without his permission, his mouth says this:

‘You were an orphan.’

‘What. The fuck?’

‘Ahahah. Sorry, sorry. I don’t know -just. Uh, um. Hold on.’

The gun is pressed further into his lower back, and there’s another against his head. He doesn’t dare move, but scans the area with his eyes. There - a puddle. Just inches away.

Thirty percent chance of survival, huh? He likes those odds.

‘You were an orphan.’ Hiro repeats. ‘The world wasn’t fair to you. You lost everything, no, everyone. You lost everyone you loved in…a fire? A flood? Some kind of disaster and you didn’t, uh, didn’t cope well. You chose despair, yeah?’

The one above him splutters in surprise. Hiro tries his best to focus on the images he’s being shown, the memories, but the puddle is looking more and more like a puddle. He curses his talent for being so unreliable. Why now?

‘What’s he on about?’ The third hisses, the one without a gun. ‘Hurry up and end it.’

Shit shit shit! Focus, Hiro, focus. He closes his eyes tight, sure the faces he’s making must be super embarrassing.

‘No! No, no you don’t have to do that, uh, Sakura? Oh wow, popular name I guess. So uh, yeah, you were...a bus-driver.’ Is that right? He hopes so. ‘That’s cool, I like busses. You lost your job though. Uh, sorry. And I predict…I predict that you don’t actually want to do any of this. You just kept running out of options until this was the only one left.’

Hiro’s heart is beating like crazy. He doesn’t know if this is the right thing to do, or even if half the stuff he just said is true. All he can hope for is to watch the way the light refracts in the puddle and follow the light it ignites in his mind. Whether this is helping or not he can’t for sure say, but they haven’t shot yet, so there’s that.

The gun against his head is replaced by a boot. They crush his face down into the dirt.

‘How…how do you know these things?’

‘I’m a clairvoya-’

The boot goes up, and then comes back down at his shoulder. At the same times, there’s a pain in his stomach. Oh, so they are kicking him now. Great.

‘Bullshit. Bullshit! We aren’t going to let you make it to the bridge, just because you’re a stalker. You will feel true despair!’

Mostly, Hiro’s feeling kicking.

Whatever connection he felt, its gone now. His talents are as absent as they were in those stupid trials. He’s about to give in completely when he hears a familiar cackle echo from the mouth of the alleyway.

‘Hey! Didn’t you hear? Master said not to hurt him!’

‘Fuck! Run for it!’

Hiro falls unconscious to the sounds of pounding feet, and scissors snapping shut.


	3. Remember

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Blood, depiction of a breakdown that is a little similar to a panic-attack, disassociation, references to the game's first murder/trial, food, fire,

FUTURE

Hiro’s head feels weird.

Its not like he’s been doing anything out of the ordinary. Its a pretty standard week for Hagakure Yasuhiro. He went to visit his mom, had a yoga class, group therapy, did some gardening (plants are still scary, but he tries his best to appease them). Chill stuff, mostly. He likes to take it easy.

But work? Work has been weird. Most of the time he gives a pretty standard reading to each client he gets. Hands out some generic good advice, and makes a few educated guesses. He rarely flat out lies but, you know, his gift isn’t the most reliable. A guy has to make money somehow.

But this week? He’s had a vison in Every. Single. Session. Its kind of driving him nuts. Hiro rarely expends this much energy. By Friday, he just wants to lie down on the couch and scream a little.  
So he does. His couch is squishy and expensive, and as he yells into the faux-leather he feels little better. 

He reminds himself there’s nothing to worry about. Sure, there are a couple of cosmic reasons this could be happening. He had figured he might have a little extra juice for a bit. Maybe he’s going to have a hard time of it for a while – fine! He can handle it.

Hiro removes his face from the sofa leather. There’s a familiar, irony smell. Is that blood? He sits up and looks around frantically.  
That’s when he sees Sayaka.

PAST

‘Hurry uuuuup, I’m starving!’ Aoi complains, rolling around in protest. 

‘Don’t move so much.’ Kyoko chides. ‘Your stitches will come undone.’

‘No fair! Hiro gets to move and he’s all beat up!’

‘I’m not moving by choice!’ Hiro snaps back, throwing another log onto the fire to emphasise his point. ‘I’m trying to get you fed!’

Aoi gives him a look as if to say that he is not feeding her fast enough. He cant really argue with that.

‘It has been almost eighteen hours since we last ate.’ Byakuya mentions. ‘Any longer and I will have to sue you for neglect.’

Makoto elbows him in the ribs.

‘He just means he’s hungry. How much longer, Hiro?’

‘Uuuuhhh.’

So the thing is, Hiro isn’t really much of a chef. But as they had slowly lost the more capable members of their group, he had found himself saddled with the responsibility. Kyoko is pretty good, too, but he doesn’t let the others cook anymore. Not since Aoi and Toko got into a fight that led to his hair getting caught on fire.

His poor, poor hair.

‘Its almost done. Just don’t get mad at me if its bad, alright? We really are getting low on supplies.’

Its something like stir-fry. He was going to make stew, but they’re getting low on clean water, so he had to go for something drier. Its mostly onions and spinach, but he'd managed to make some basic flatbreads too so its not all bad. At least its hot and edible.

‘Okay! Lets eat!’

‘I have a question.’ Kyoko says, with her usual poor timing. Just about everyone has their mouths full. ‘Did any of you have any friends prior to arriving at Hope’s Peak?’

Its a weird question, and a little out of the blue, but Hiro has figured out by now that this is kind of Kyoko's style. She’s usually so many steps ahead of him that he isn’t going to know what she’s thinking so it better just to answer her.

‘Uh, not really.’

‘Why? Explain.’  
‘Oh! Well, people tend to find me either weird or just plain shady. I’d like to think I’ve changed, though.’

She nods curtly in response, then turns to the others.

‘I was pretty lonely too.’ Aoi says, a little sadly. ‘I was so busy competing that I didn’t really have time for it, and people could be pretty mean.’

‘I was and am uninterested in relationships.’ Byakuya says sternly. ‘Are you going somewhere with this?’

Kyoko nods solemnly.

‘Yes. I promise this is going somewhere. Toko, Makoto?’

‘Of c-course I didn’t. Why w-would anyone want to be my friend?’

‘We’re your friends’, Toko’ Makoto smiles. ‘I was a pretty normal kid, so I knew people, but no. There wasn’t anyone I was particularly close to.’

Hearing all this, Hiro just feels sad. They must be a real bunch of losers to all be so friendless. Even if all those people would probably be dead now, it would have been cool to hope that they could find some allies out there.  
He feels a little weird about it, really. Shouldn't there be someone who misses him? At least Kyoko seems happy.

‘I’ve figured it out.’

FUTURE

The past few…days? Weeks? The past few minutes have been awful for Hagakure. It’s like swimming, no. It’s like drowning. 

It’s like remembering.

He knew that this…month? He knew this time of year would be hard. With the current lunar cycle, and the shift of the ether coinciding with the anniversary of…of all that – he knew it would be hard. He keeps repeating that, like a mantra, like a prayer. His gifts had been growing. The constant readings for all these famous people, the better equipment afforded by his new station, the visions that came in his sleep. His gift is so much stronger. He knew it would be hard. He knew.

But he never imagined it would be like this.

He’s on the floor. Back against the wall behind him, legs spread out in front. He’s in…the bathroom? No. No, the bedroom. But she was in the bathroom. And there’s something sticky on the wall behind her…him. And hifu-no. Leon? Someone is standing over him. 

This is familiar, and new, and horrifying. He doesn’t want to be here. Is this some kind of time-travel magic? No, no, the occult is stupid, that’s stupid. This must be happening. Why can’t he get up and leave? It’s all so heavy. He’s so confused.

The something-sticky from the wall is all over his hands. He remembers taking a knife from his kitchenette…or the school kitchen? His torso hurts, and he puts his hands over it, and the movement either stains his hands or stains his shirt and he doesn’t know which. His crystal – his glass – his crystal ball is missing. Hifumi took it.

Hifumi? Hifumi is dead. Leon…is also dead. Sayaka too. Hiro? Is Hiro dead?

‘Hiro?’ A voice echoes his thoughts, and there are hands on his shoulders. He clasps his hands in prayer and hopes they show him mercy, but finds he’s holding something. ‘Hiro! No! G-give me that, okay?’  
And she’s prying the knife from his hands, and sliding it away from him, across the floor. He feels a little safer now that she’s here.

‘Are you Hiro?’ he asks, shakily. ‘Are you Hiro’s ghost?’

The lady blinks at him, as though he’s said something monumentally stupid. Then, worry slides onto her face. She’s wiping his hands with a cloth, at least. It’s nice to be less covered in that sticky stuff.  
‘No. I’m Hina, your Hiro. What’s happened to you? Why did you cut your hands?’ Her gaze slips over his shoulder, to something behind him on the wall. ‘Hiro, why would you write that? You’re really freaking me out!’  
Hina….Hina… Oh! Hina!

Suddenly, the world loses that watery quality. Of course, she would be the one to dive down and save him. Groaning, he sits up a little, pulls his jacket over his shoulders with shaking hands. There really is a lot of blood.  
‘S-sorry Hina. I think my divinations went totally haywire. It was wild.’

‘Wild is one word for it!’ She looks relieved. ‘Your assistant called and said that you’ve missed three readings today! And I came up here to find you all cut up and, and-’

She stops and takes a deep, steadying breath. Hiro knows her well enough to recognise that, once upon a time, she would have been crying at a scene like this. He also knew Sakura well enough to recognise that this is one of her breathing techniques. She and Sayaka used to trade meditation practices and vocal warm-ups. It was actually really swee-

Wait.

Hold up.

‘Sayaka and Sakura used to practice together.’ He says out loud, getting a feel for the words. ‘And…you. You used to trade lunch with Leon, because he always got the best snacks. And, and! Kyoko sat next to me in science class. I would always copy her answers.’

Hina is staring at him, wide eyed, and now a couple of those tears are starting to show themselves. She doesn’t look sad though. Hiro recognises this look, too. She looks hopeful.

‘You better not be messing with me, Hiro.’

‘I’m not.’ Hiro breathes, unsure even as he says the words. ‘I think I remember.’

PAST

‘What have you solved?’ Byakuya asks, trying not to look too curious.

Hiro doesn’t bother with that. He leans in eagerly. He loves when the other ultimates do their ultimate thing. Its like, the total beauty of a person reaching their full potential. How awesome it that?  
Very. Its very awesome.

‘I have figured out two truths, one of which confirms the other.’

‘And it has something to do with us not having friends?’ Makoto asks, unsure.

‘Precisely. It first occurred to me during a conversation with Taka. He mentioned his lack of a social life prior to Hope’s Peak. I found this unlikely.’

‘H-he was pretty l-l-loud.’ Toko mutters.

‘Of course, but from what we saw he was able to make a number of close friends with ease, despite the situation. Even so, he had clear reasons for why he never made any friends before, claiming he lacked social skills.’  
‘And we all have reasons too.’ Says Makoto, catching on. ‘We were all friendless before Hope’s Peak, even though we didn’t struggle to make friends during the game.’

Kyoko nods. ‘Correct. Which means?’

Hiro has no fucking clue what it means, but he knows better than to interrupt now. When these two get on a role, they usually end up right.

‘Which means that it doesn’t make sense for us not to have been social before. We most likely had friends, and we’ve been made to forget them!’

‘What?’ Hina squeaks. ‘But we all have a good reason for being lonely, right? So maybe its just a coincidence?’

‘Actually Hina, that’s exactly the point I am getting to. The consistency with which we all have reasons for being alone leads me to believe that Junko not only took memories from us...but implanted them, as well. As a little extra motivation.’

Aside from a few splutters of disbelief, the group falls into a short-lived silence. Only the distant, ever-present howls of despair can be heard. Its almost funny, because he feels upset, but not surprised. Her words ring true.  
‘Proof.’ Byakuya says, after a little while. ‘You need proof.’

‘I have it, though I doubt you will accept it.’ Kyoko fiddles with her hair, a smug look flashing across her features. ‘Hiro's vision.’

‘Wah? My vision?’

‘I have taken some time to decipher it and, along with some other clues I have picked up on our journey, I have reached a conclusion. Junko did not destroy the world.’

Aoi looks around dramatically at the wreckage. ‘Seems pretty busted to me.’

‘Think it through. The vision told us that we would have to escape again, which implies there is somewhere to escape to. We also know that people came to try and rescue us. They had to have come from somewhere. I have also seen signs of distant light pollution and recent air travel. I believe that the entire world was not affected, but rather, this is a very large disaster area.’

‘So there’s still a world out there?’ Makoto sounds so hopeful it almost hurts.

‘Even if that were the case,’ Byakuya interrupts ‘I don’t see what this has to do with our memories being changed.’

‘I d-do.’ Toko says, so quietly its barely perceptible. ‘Y-you think Junko messed with her memories of the Tragedy, right? And that Junko just lied to us in the final trial?’

‘Exactly. I do not think that Junko could resist throwing a little more despair our way, as a final act of vengeance. By alternating between honesty and deception, she created uncertainty. It could be that there is no world left, and we will a fall to despair whilst searching for it. Or that the remaining world is so much worse than we left it, to the point where we will give up upon arriving there. I think this was her ultimate goal.’

‘She expected us to give up without even trying.’ Makoto says, almost laughing. ‘Well, that’s not going to happen. Even if society is terrible now, that just gives us a chance to fix it!’

Everyone shoots each other uneasy glances. Makoto’s positivity is nice, but not every person can reach that level of optimism. Hiro doesn’t know if he’s ready to entertain the idea of people just being out there, living happily. Is a normal life really still possible?

‘It’s got to be better than this, at least.’ Byakuya grumbles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's read this far!! I really appreciate it!  
> And thanks especially to those who leave kudos or comments on my fics. I'm usually too nervous to reply to them directly, but am super thankful.   
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	4. Reading

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again!  
> Hope people are enjoying where this fic is going. I know I mess around with canon quite a bit, and that its pretty self indulgent. BTW, I changed the spacing on the first two chapters for readability. I also want to change the summary, so that might happen soon.
> 
> Additional warnings time! Mentions of blood, multiple references to canonical deaths, timeline shenanigans, self-deprecating thoughts, hunger. Also, a lot of Byakuya being Byakuya :)

FUTURE

‘Explain everything. From the top.’ Kyoko instructs, piercing Hiro with her intense gaze.

They are sat in his reading room, where he works as a clairvoyant, an unusual meeting place for the surviving students. Usually they go to Byakuya’s, since he has enough chairs for everyone, or Aoi’s, since she actually enjoys hosting. But after Hiro’s revelation, Hina had insisted on calling everyone right away, barely giving him enough time to change out of his bloody shirt. 

He’s still feeling out of sorts, to be honest, and this room isn’t helping. All of his amplification crystals and various incense sticks are meant to help with his readings, so it’s a little difficult to focus on conversation. His flat isn’t exactly ‘visitor ready’ though, and this is his biggest room by far. It still feels weird to be sitting here in casual clothing. He has a whole outfit he likes to wear when divining. He’s just going to have to deal with the headache later.  
‘Well, uh.’ Hiro starts, fumbling for words under the pressure of all the people staring at him. ‘There’s not much to explain, you know? The stars just aligned I guess.’

‘He was covered in blood when I got here.’ Adds Hina, hastily. ‘He thought I was him, or his ghost? He was super confused. And he’d written…he’d written Leon on the wall.’

‘What?’ Makoto gasps. ‘Hiro, why would you write that?’

Hiro tries to laugh it off, but everyone has those serious faces on. This feels like the fourth trial all over again.

‘Look, I got a little confused, that’s all. And you know, it was like a vision or whatever.’ He sits up a little straighter, confidence returning. ‘So yeah! I don’t have to tell you anything – my services come at a steep fee, you know.’

‘I’ll pay it.’ Says Kyoko simply. ‘My own business is similarly sought after.’

‘J-just hurry up a-and tell us!’ Toko hisses.

Hiro glances around anxiously. There really doesn’t seem to be a way out of this one. Looking at the faces of these people he’s known since they were kids, he can’t help but still see them that way. He’s not exactly ancient himself, but at least he’d made it to adulthood before all that messed up stuff happened. He doesn’t want to add to their trauma. He really, really doesn’t want to hurt them by telling them stuff that they are better off not knowing.

But he also knows them, so he sighs, and then he speaks.

‘So, you know about multiple universe theory, right?’

‘Yes.’ Byakuya and Kyoko reply, immediately. The others look confused.

‘Okay so. It implies that there are infinite branches for any one decision. Like, if there was a fork in a road, you would go left in one universe and right in the other. But that’s not really how it works or, uh, at least that’s not how I see it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, let’s use Byakuya as an example, yeah? If there are two paths before you and one of them leads to a gym, and the other to a library, which path do you take?’

‘The library, obviously.’ He scoffs.

‘Right. And Hina, same question.’

‘I’d choose the gym.’ She says. ‘But I don’t know where you are going with this.’

Yasuhiro hunches his shoulders, and tries to corral his brain cells into some sort of organised shape. There’s something that feels wrong about giving an explanation to some of the smartest people on the planet. At the same time, he’s given this speech over and over to so many clients. He’s had to explain to all sorts of non-believers and sceptics how the universe works, at least from his perspective. It’s easy enough to explain something that you’ve known since you were a toddler, even if he’d really rather leave these guys in the dark.

‘Right. So this is the problem with infinite universes. It completely ignores that people have preferences, and like, free-will! If there was a universe where Byakuya chose the gym, then he would be so far from the Byakuya we know that it wouldn’t even count as the same person. It would be like he was a totally different guy.’

‘So you’re suggesting…’ Makoto says, looking pensive. ‘That things can only ever go one way?’

‘Yes! I mean, no.’ Hiro fumbles. ‘Like, if the two roads lead to a library and a bank, or wherever rich dudes go, then Byakuya might have trouble choosing. In this instance there would be multiple paths. So there are multiple routes the universe can take, but not infinite ones.’

Hina stands up, buzzing with energy. Aww man, she looks angry.

‘What does this have to do with anything!’ She huffs. ‘It was so scary when I found you, you looked just like Sayaka! And now you’re acting totally unlike yourself!’

‘Sorry Hina.’ Hiro scratches his head, ruffling his dreadlocks. ‘I swear, I’m getting to it. Man, I feel like Byakuya. Taking forever to get to the point.’

Despite herself, Hina laughs, and Hiro lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

‘Anyway, the point is this. Due to the cosmic convergence of three majorly powerful events, I was granted a vision of a few different paths from our history. Its, uh, it’s not going to be very fun to talk about. But the first murder at Hope’s Peak had three main paths.’

There was a sharp inhale of breath from Makoto, and Hina sat back down, but nobody interrupted him.

‘One path, you already know. It was actually the second most likely. The third was that Sayaka succeeded, and Leon was killed. The most likely option was…my own death. At Hifumi’s hands.’

‘What?’

‘Hiro…’

‘Yeah. The details were kind of…hazy? I don’t know why he did it. But it was the same method as Sayaka’s, so I guess that’s a fixed point. The paths were kinda blurry in my head. But watching them, seeing these things happen…it unlocked something else.’

‘Your memories.’ Makoto says quietly ‘The ones Junko stole.’

‘Right. Except, I think its gonna take some time to unpack all of that. I’m not the quickest guy, you know? And my heads still kind of a mess, so I don’t know everything yet. But I remember…I remember being friends, before the incident. Going skating, seeing movies. All that good stuff.’

‘How do we know that any of this is true?’ Byakuya muses, sourly. ‘Even if you aren’t lying, you have only a 30% rate of accuracy.’

‘Actually, you’re wrong.’ Hiro says, as smug as he’s ever felt. He can’t help the grin that spreads over his face. ‘It turns out, Kyoko was right, as usual. Junko didn’t just take memories away. She planted them. Altered them.’  
‘You can’t be serious.’

‘I’m very serious. And guess what? My actual percentage of accuracy is…’ Hiro stands up, feeling fuckin awesome. ‘70% percent!’

There is silence for a moment.

‘That’s still p-pretty low’ Toko murmurs.

The room, predictably, descends into chaos.

Later, when things have settled, Hina grabs Hiro’s arm and pulls him aside.

‘Sakura....’ she whispers. ‘Sakura was supposed to commit the first murder. Was that never an option?’

Hiro wraps his arms around her. She buries her face in his chest. He hasn’t actually seen it all, and doesn’t really know how it all would have played out. But…

‘Aoi. There is not a single path where Sakura killed any of her friends. On that, I’m one hundred percent certain.’

Hina makes a choked, sobbing sound.

‘She was the best of us.’

PAST  
Hiro is breathing heavily.

Its just been a long day. A hungry day, too. He's been trying his best to hold it all together, but right now he feels like he's going to burst. 

Everyone's on edge. Aoi and Byakuya had started fighting early this morning, Toko too, and Kyoko had ventured off on her own for some mysterious reason. Makoto had gone to fine her, leaving Hiro stuck with three arguing, hungry, angry teenagers. It hadn't ended well.

He'd yelled at them. Nothing awful, just that they were getting on his nerves. Still felt bad though. He didn't mean to. He remembers how patient his mom was, when he was growing up. She never shouted at him, even when he came home with gum in his hair for the third time. She was never exactly gentle, but she didn't yell.

Hiro's never had her patience.

He get's scared, easily. Upset, easily. Hiro likes to be easy going, friendly, but sometimes the world is just too much. He never asked to for any of this. He just wanted to hide out in a school that was supposed to be safer than a world which was already way to frightening. His talent barely even counts. He doesn't want to do this anymore. Now he's sulking in some room of some old, broken house, on his own.

'Hiro?' Aoi asks, from the doorway. She sounds sad.

Aww, he really fucked up, didn't he?

'Hey, Aoi. Sorry about earlier.'  
She chuckles.

'I was going to say the same the thing.' She sits down beside him. 'Byakuya is sorry too.'

'Yah? Well, good.' Hiro crosses his arms. 'you two really do argue a lot.'

'I know.' she scuffs her trainer along the floor. 'Its hard to believe we were friends, once.'

Hiro knows the feeling. Sometimes, he wonders what it was like to be just another student. A peer, instead of the responsible adult. Well, semi-responsible. He still likes to think of them all as his friends, but can't help but wish he felt less pressure to keep everything running smoothly.

'Maybe you weren't. I mean, it would weird if all of us were in one big group, right? There were probably smaller ones.'

She nods sadly.

'That's true. I kind of...I kind of like to think that we all got along, though. It would be nice to know for sure. I want to know if I had other friends, too.'

He wants to agree, but he isn't so sure. Maybe it would be nice to know, but Hiro is still struggling with the concept that he might have once had friends. He could spend all day asking himself questions about what kind of people they would be, but the whole thing still feels a little unlikely. If he ever did have any friends, then they probably would have had things in common with him. And that is a worrying thought.

'I don't know. Anyone who hung out with me was probably a loser. Nowhere near as cool as you guys.'

Hina laughs.

'Well, obviously. Nobody is as cool me.'

FUTURE

Hiro is working, and isn’t that a lovely concept.

Things have been weird since his memories starting coming back. Weird like scary. Weird like confusing. The realisation that he could have died right off the bat really isn’t helping. He realises, on some level, that he really ought to try and process all those feelings.

But hey! There’ll be time for that later. For now, there’s work.

His clairvoyance system is one of his own design, pulling from a few different cultures but mostly his gut feelings. Still, he knows what people want to see when they come to a reading, so he dresses in silks and smiles dreamily at the parade of billionaires that walk in and out of the room.

Hiro's been a little distracted today, so he’s mostly just been telling them that there’s prosperity in their future. People loooove it when he says prosperity, for some reason.  
When another asshole in a suit walks in, he prepares the same greeting he’s given eight times today. But then-

‘Byakuya? What are you doing here?’

The head of the Togami empire kneels opposite him with a condescending look.

‘Really, Yasuhiro? I would think that even you could figure that one out.’

Weirdly enough, the kid looks a little nervous. He’s fiddling with the side of his glasses like he’s trying to solve something.

‘It’s not like you’d be here for a reading, though.’ Hiro says. ‘You don’t even believe in that stuff.’

‘Tsk.’ Togami shakes his head. ‘It’s true that I do not waste my time on something as sentimental as belief. This has nothing to do with that.’

‘Huh?’ 

‘I’ve been reviewing the footage.’

It takes Hiro a second to figure out what he means, and then a whole minute to process it. When Hiro had found out the recordings of the killing game were all online, he had vowed to himself not to watch them. He didn’t want to go through that again. He had assumed the others would feel the same.

‘Why?’ he splutters, flailing his arms a little. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘That does not concern you, yet. For now, rest assured that I have confirmed for myself that your abilities are not to do with belief, but hard fact.’

‘Huh?’

Sighing, Byakuya makes a show of counting on his fingertips, as though addressing a child.

‘One. You guessed at the beginning that it was all a prank. Junko's reveal essentially confirmed this. Two. The cabinet outside the gym somehow indicated to you that the world outside was doomed. Again, true. Three, you correctly identified that Hifumi would be the final murder victim. Four. Your statement in Sakura's trial of ‘the end is nigh', mere days before our escape. Fi-'

‘Okay dude. I get it. Man, how do you make it sound insulting, when you’re complimenting me?’

Byakuya chuckled.

‘It’s a talent, but I’m glad you understand. The long and short of it is that your correct predictions by far overshadow your incorrect ones. Therefore, you will help me.’

Well, there goes Hiro's hopes of an easy day ignoring real life shit. Togami really knows how to make a bucket full of trauma sound like a list of trivia. Still, if his friend needs help, Hiro isn’t going to let him down. Especially since he’s paying.

‘Uh, um. Sure! Yeah! What do you need?’

‘I can no longer...’ Byakuya's hands were bunched into fists against his legs. ‘Since the confirmation of Kyoko's theory, I can no longer trust my own mind. I need you to fill in the gaps.’

‘Okay, well, I could do like a three-card spread, or read your aura or-'

‘Idiot. No. Use that crystal you’re so proud of, and tell me what she took. ‘

Hiro was silent for a long moment, biting his lip. Beneath his usual veneer, Byakuya looked furious, and frightened. Hiro understands that. His own head has felt similarly messed up lately. But looking for stuff like that isn’t easy.  
‘Please.’ Byakuya adds, sensing his hesitance.

Whoa. Humility, from Byakuya? Well, now he has to at least try.

‘I’m going to be honest with you here. Honesty costs extra, by the way. See, crystal readings are unreliable at best. Sometimes, if you look into a ball, all you’re going to see is the inside of a ball.’

‘I already knew that. Proceed.’

‘Right.’

Hiro reaches into the cabinet behind him and shuffles to the side a bit, allowing Byakuya to view his collection, mostly so he can show it off. Hiro’s not the best with money so its sort of grow over the years. Some are tinted with colourful pigments, other sit in elaborately forged stands. Even a few that are entirely opaque, though those are mostly decorative. Each is unique in its own way. Going of instinct, he pulls out a perfectly clear orb, and holds it plainly in the centre of his palm. It feels powerful in his hand.

‘Ask of me a question, or guide me with a name. Offer the seeds of the sight.’

‘What? You already know what I want.’

‘Dude, I have a process here. Just go with it. Speak directly.’

Byakuya sighs heavily, but looks with Hiro into the ball.

‘Tell me the missing history of Byakuya Togami.’

Hagakure tries, he really does. He stares into the orb, then tries to stare deeper. Past whatever reality he resides in, past the ether, through time itself. He glares fate in the face and asks it, nicely, to give him a hint or three.

‘Does it usually take this long?’

‘Shh.’

‘I doubt a regular customer would sit here whilst you glare angrily at a trinket.’

‘Well, duh. By now I would have lied to them and taken their money.’

After ten more minutes of this, though, even Hiro has to give up. The ball just looks like a ball. He turns towards the cabinet, placing it back in its rightful place.

‘I knew this was a waste of time.’ Byakuya says, angrily getting up.

‘Sorry, I don’t know wha – stop!’

‘What?’

‘Stop. Stay right there.’

Reflected in the surface of one of the orbs in the cabinet, he sees Byakuya. The image is wrong, though, and something about it sparks a fire in Hiro’s gut. He reaches for the orb, a small, pearlescent thing full of imperfections, and moves back to a kneeling position. When he moves it, the image of Byakuya does not falter.

‘Sit back down, Byakuya, and stay quiet.’

Miraculously, he does as he’s told.

‘I see you. Younger. Quieter, too. Sitting with someone. A familiar presence.’

‘Familiar like family?’

‘Not quite. Just…I know her. Hang on.’

Tilting it quietly, he tries to look deeper. Past the initial vision. Tries to let his mind wander beyond.

‘It’s Kyoko. You were friends with Kyoko. Study buddies, it looks like. Couple of grade-A nerds.’

‘Can you go further back? I have to know if she altered any of my memories prior to Hope’s Peak.’

‘Hang on.’ Hiro gasps. 

He can’t see the room anymore, or the version of Byakuya across from him. He tries to stop thinking, to let the ether speak through him. He doesn’t think he’s breathing, anymore. His body feels stiff and alien. All at once, it crashes over him like a wave.

‘Junko only took your memories of Hope’s Peak. She felt it was unnecessary to change you any further. She knew you would comply with the rules of her game.’

When Hiro can see again, Byakuya has a very strange look on his face. A mixture of relief and regret. Like he doesn’t quite know how to handle this news. The moment he realises that Hiro is looking at him, he schools his expression into one of total calm.

‘I see. Then, we are done here.’

‘You don’t want to know the future? That’s kind of my specialty, you know. Asking a clairvoyant about the past is all kinds of weird. Try a historian next time.’

‘I assume another reading would cost more?’

‘Well, obviously.’

Byakuya chuckles lightly, moving towards the door.

‘Goodbye, Yasuhiro. And…thank you.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! If you are enjoying so far, consider leaving a kudos/comment. :)


	5. Payment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: House fire mention, claustrophobia, guns, violence, background character death, zombie-style behaviour, car accident.

PAST

‘Is it working yet?’

‘Hold o-‘

‘Hiro, we have to move!’

‘Uh, shit, Um.’

‘Hiro!’

In his hands, the wires finally spark, and he hears the rumble of an engine kicking to life.

‘All right! Buckle up!’

With that, they are off, a crowd of bear-masks disappearing in the rear-view mirror. Behind him a chorus of cheers erupts, thankful to be finally moving. Besides him, Kyoko is gripping the dashboard with tense, gloved hands.

‘You said you could drive!’

‘I can. I’m driving right now.’ Hiro pauses, concerned. ‘I am driving, right? You can see this?’

Kyoko and Makoto had found this car this morning. By some miracle, or maybe just dumb luck, the thing had fuel and all the components of a functioning engine. When they’d told Hiro about it, he’d nearly wept with joy. 

‘I can see it!’ Hina pipes up. She’s sitting on Makoto’s lap because there no room for all of them.

‘She means that you are doing a bad job.’ Byakuya huffs. 

‘Don’t be rude to Hiro, Byakuya. He got the car working after all.’ Makoto admonishes calmly.

‘I would hardly call hot-wiring an admirable skill.’

Soon, the pair are bickering wildly. Usually Makoto wouldn’t engage in this, but it’s been a rough couple of weeks, so Hiro can’t fault the kid for blowing off some steam. Soon Toko jumps to Byakuya’s defence, and Hina to Makoto’s, untill the car is filled with arguments that are way too fast for Hiro to keep up with. He keeps his attention on the road instead, and hopes he’s going in the right direction.

‘Where did you learn to drive?’ Kyoko spits out through gritted teeth. She’s been pretty quiet this whole time. She looks even paler than usual.

‘Oh, uh. I can’t exactly remember. My mom probably taught me, I guess.’ Hiro chuckles. ‘Keep your eyes on the horizon, kay? Let me know if you’re gonna be sick.’

Kyoko nods. She’s silent for a moment.

‘Tell me about your mother.’

‘Huh?’

‘I need a distraction.’ Her grip on the dashboard tightens. ‘Tell me about her.’

‘Oh! Okay.’ He thinks super hard. Man, where to even start? ‘She’s like, the coolest. Well, she’s not very motherly, but she looked after me pretty good. I worry about her a lot. She had me when she was young, and people were pretty mean to her about my dad and stuff.’

‘Your dad?’

‘I didn’t know him very well. I mean, I remember the house fire. That was his fault, but I don’t think he meant anything by it. Just one of those things. An accident. We were a pretty accident-prone family. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes. I can admit that.’

Kyoko’s looking a little better, a little less tense. Behind him, the kids have stopped arguing and are paying attention. Woo. Okay. Just got to tell an interesting story to a bunch of hyper talented people, one of whom is an author. No pressure, Hiro. 

‘So, uh, I accumulated some debt with some people I shouldn’t have. I had to move out, because I didn’t want to get my mom in trouble, and uh, I was pretty old to be living at home anyway. I can’t quite remember where I moved to, but I know that the day I left she handed me this freezer bag full of frozen food that she had stayed up all night making. She told me not to eat it all at once, then ruffled my hair till I laughed. She was weird like that.’ Hiro chuckles sadly. ‘I miss her.’

A not-quite-comfortable silence settles over the car. And then-

‘I miss my sister.’ Makoto says, quietly. ‘We used to tell each other everything. If I was bored, I would wander into her room and she would always make time to hang out with me. I hope she’s okay.’

‘Me and my brother are like that!’ Hina adds, excitedly. ‘He was always bugging me, but I didn’t mind. I didn’t have many friends back then, so it was nice to have him around.’

‘Some of my siblings were similarly tolerable.’ Adds Byakuya quietly.

Hagakure can’t help but laugh at that. One of these day’s he’s going to have to teach Byakuya to chill out a little. The others join in, even Toko letting out a quiet giggle.

The car ride is pretty pleasant.

And then they reach the bridge.

FUTURE

Hiro’s super happy about the world still being a thing. Its great! Hurray for society not crumbling, and actually improving, and all that hope-ey stuff Makoto says at his speeches.

The problem with there still being people, though, is that there are still people that don’t like him very much. Well, actually, there are more of those than ever before after everyone watched the game, but he specifically means the ones who he owes money to.

Quite a lot of money, actually.

Okay, okay, he knows he should have been saving. He certainly gets enough work these days. But, well, there’s so much cool stuff to buy. He just got an armchair that’s shaped like a frog. That’s so cool. It was kind of expensive, but there’s no price too high for true art!

When a couple of scary looking dudes in long coats show up at his door, he knows what it’s about. Somehow, he’s not as scared anymore. It just seems stupid that he’d die to something like this. He’s Hagakure Yasuhiro! Its going to be fine.

It isn’t until he’s bundled into the back of a van that he thinks he maybe made an error, here. Because if he’s honest, he can’t super remember who he owes money to. Are these the kind of guys who will be happy with an I.O.U?

When the doors to the van slam shut, his heart rate sky-rockets.

‘Hey! Uh, I’m not great with confined spaces so-'

‘Quiet.’

‘Shit, yeah, okay.’

One of these dudes (there are three, why is it always three?) shoots him a nasty look for daring to respond. 

There’s something horrifically familiar about being in a metal box with a bunch of people who want him dead. Especially since these guys don't seem at all accustomed to driving a van. Why are they going so fast? Are they racers?  
He’s relieved when they blindfold him, and drag him out into the night air.

He’s dragged for a while longer. He thinks of Hifumi stuffing him into a locker, and of Celeste. In his best moments, he thinks he can forgive her. Right now, Hiro's cursing her for not leaving her fortune to him. 

The blindfold is lifted in a room full of...curtains? Like, the walls are draped with curtains. Thick, canvas curtains. Huh.

‘Hagakure.’ Spits a familiar looking man. 

‘Uh. Hi! Am I in trouble?’

The guy just stares at him, as though he’d expected more. Something about him seems off. Like, a glance in his direction sends an error message through Hiro's brain. Shit, does Hiro know him? Dark hair...scowling face...coat. His coat is-

Jet black, with careful gold embroidery. A coat that strikes fear into the hearts of his fellow students. A coat that is accompanied by the violent grin and sharp eyes of Mondo Owada.

Oh shit.

‘Mondo?’ Hiro blurts, and before he can think about it he’s pushing out of the grip of the people holding him, stumbling towards where this dude is kneeling. His first assumption is that this is a ghost, but Kyoko says he needs to stop accusing people of that without evidence, so maybe...?

‘How fucking dare you.’ Says the dude who looks like Mondo, and then Hiro is getting punched in the jaw.

‘Ow!’

‘Maybe if you thought before you spoke, I wouldn’t have to do that, huh?’ he at least has the decency to look embarrassed, reaching an arm out to steady Hiro. 

They stand like that, in the middle of the curtain covered room, while Hiro tries his best to catch up. The others have left them alone.

It’s not Mondo. He can see that now. He has the eyes, the smile...a different nose. A stronger jaw line. And he doesn’t have the energy. Mondo was always vibrant. On fire. Hiro struggles not to compare him to electricity.  
This guy...this guy looks drained. He looks like Taka did, for a little while. He looks broken. 

‘I don’t understand.’ Hiro whispers, helplessly.

‘Your mom said...she said you’d remembered? What gives, man?’

‘Yeah, bits and pieces, but this is like a whole different thing. It’s like I’m looking at you, but you aren’t supposed to be there.’

The guy lets go of Hiro’s arm, sits down cautiously. He seems to favour his right leg. Hiro has grown used to pitying looks, but this one takes the biscuit. He looks crestfallen. 

‘I thought this was about the debt stuff.’ Hiro mutters.

The guy nods.

‘It is, yeah. Of course, it is.’ He runs a hand down his face. ‘Look, given the circumstances, the Diamonds are willing to absolve your debt in return for...some favours.’

‘Favours?’

At this, the guy becomes all business. Looking at him still hurts.

‘A bunch of the gang...they’re struggling with despair, to be honest. We’ve lost a couple of them. I figure having a beacon of hope around might do them some good.’

‘I can’t join a gang!’ Hiro squeaks.

Not-Mondo laughs, high pitched and hysteric. Its almost a giggle.

‘No, man, no! I just want you to do some readings here. Once a week, for a little while. We even made you a room.’ He gestures at the curtains around him. ‘I couldn’t quite remember what goes into one of these so like. Is this good?’

And he wants Hiro's approval. This tough, badass looking guy, who giggles like a pop-star and wears that coat, is looking for Hiro's approval. What?

‘Yeah. Uh, its great, but. Um. Who are you?’ Hiro asks.

The guy opens his mouth. And then its closed again. He looks expectantly at Hiro.

‘I’m sorry, can you repeat that?’

Again, his mouth opens and closes. If this isn’t ghost evidence, then Hiro doesn’t know what is.

‘Okay! Cool! Okay! I will do your freaky ghost readings or whatever. I just want to go home right now please, okay?’

‘Sure thing, Yasu. I’m not gonna imprison ya or nothing.’

PAST

The bridge, it turns out, is very literal. 

There is a chasm, the bottom of which Hiro cannot see, and the length of which he could not guess if her tried. It seems to go forever. There actually appear to be multiple bridges, made from garbage and rubble by the masked people who live here.

The people who, even now, swarm the lip of the chasm.

An ocean of them, for miles around. The people who got stuck here when the tragedy hit. This is why they’d had so few encounters with them – they live here. Die here, too. A lot of them are fighting, over food, over weapons. They group themselves into clusters and gangs. Some of them make an attempt to build bridges, but most of them have given up.

As Hiro drives as close as he dares, it becomes clear why. Whenever one gets close to the edge of the chasm, a bullet streaks across it. They drop dead in seconds.

‘Some of them aren’t acting like people.’ Kyoko notes quietly. ‘The movements are off. Others are just standing entirely still.’

‘You think they’ve had their minds messed with?’ Makoto asks.

‘Almost certainly.’

Hiro doesn’t know about that, and wouldn’t bother to hazard a guess. He’s more distracted by the fact that its going to be impossible to escape this place. Even if they made it past the zombie-people, how would they cross the chasm.

‘We're all going to die here.’ He sobs, stopping the car just far enough away that their arrival goes unnoticed. ‘We should turn back. Go find somewhere to hide or something.’

‘I am not turning back now.’ Aoi huffs. ‘Can anyone see if there is water in the chasm? We could swim across!’

‘Unlikely.’ Says Byakuya. ‘We need a more direct approach.’

‘I could try and talk to them.’ Makoto adds, but he sounds unsure. ‘Maybe they can be convinced to stop fighting?’

Nobody wants to tell him how dumb an idea that is. Hiro turns around in his seat and gives him a little pat on the head.

‘That’s a little too risky, Makoto.’ Kyoko reasons. ‘We might be able to sneak past them, though. They all seem very distracted. If we could find some monokuma masks we could go through.’

‘But then we’ll just get shot on the bridge!’ Hiro wails.

There’s a moment of grim silence. Hagakure feels cold. To come so far, but fail so easily? What was it all for?

‘A direct approach...’ Byakuya mumbles, then snaps his fingers. ‘There really is only one thing for it.’

‘Of course, Byakuya has a plan!’ Toko squeals.

‘I do. Just drive.’

‘Where? You want me to back up or something?’

‘No. Drive forward.’

Hiro can almost hear the cogs tick in everyone’s heads as they realise what Byakuya is proposing. Kyoko grips her seatbelt tightly, and Hina clings to Makoto. They all brace for impact. It seems a decision has been made.  
With a deep sigh, Hiro braces too, putting all his weight onto the peddle. This is a stupid plan. But then, he’s always been pretty stupid.

‘If I die, I’m going to haunt the fuck out of you, Togami!’ he yells.

And then they are charging forward. And bodies are diving out of the way, screaming, in every direction. The old car groans in protest but Hiro refuses to let up as the windows become a blur of scenery.  
He aims for a bridge. Garbage squeaks beneath his tires as the makeshift surface struggles to hold up under the weight of the car. Everything is colour and noise.

And then nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HE'S FINALLY HERE
> 
> Also Woah check out the chapter numbers. I'm almost done!
> 
> Thanks for reading, and take care!


	6. Freedom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Anxiety, blood, BIG focus on memory loss this chapter, aftermath of a crash, death threat. destruction, pollution.

FUTURE

That’s the final fucking straw.

Has Yasuhiro had some moments where he didn’t cope so well? Sure. Had he freaked out a couple times? Yeah. Maybe he hadn’t always been the bravest, but he tried his best to keep things together. It's not that he ever thought himself to be a very strong person, although he has come to know by now that strength is sometimes difficult to define. Even so, it's a tricky thing to know your weaknesses; to know yourself to be a person defined and driven by fear. 

The final straw is that Hiro is out of milk.

He's been trying not to think about things. Usually that's not very difficult for him. Hiro is not the thoughtful sort. Sure, he likes to think of his friends. He likes to think of good times and good food and the good that's in the world. However, he isn't exactly a deep thinker. His deepest thoughts are usually conspiracies that send his friends into a spiral of complaints. His mother always told him that positive thinking was key. His mother was (and is) an incredibly smart person, so he never really questioned it. Just tried to keep bad thoughts out of his head and go on with things.

That no longer appears to be an option. That stopped being an option the moment he realised he was out milk. Because the lack of milk meant a lack of tea and the lack of tea meant a lack of distraction. The frustration he felt at such a small inconvenience welled up inside him, boiling over into his other thoughts, until he could only think of That Man. The man with Mondo’s coat. 

On top of that, he’s reminded of the ongoing struggle with his emerging memories, and the realisation that he could have been the first to die. He couldn’t get the Leon shaped bloodstain off his wall. In his best moments, he likes to flatter himself. He likes to think that they wouldn't have made it out without him. He likes to think that he is important. 

In his worst moments, like this one, he becomes suddenly very certain that this is not the case. He's known for a long time that the others think he's stupid. He's known for a long time that he probably is. His contributions had been only negative and his death had been a possibility and those two facts add up in his mind to something terrible and twisting. 

Before he can stop it, his chest his grown tight. Hiro tries to convince himself that this is a precursor to another version but he knows it’s not. He considers calling his therapist, but when he reaches for the phone that is not the number he dials.

‘Hiro?’

‘Hey Makoto. Are you busy?’

‘Not really. I just finished work. What's up?’

The words feel heavy in his mouth, or rather, they feel too heavy to reach his mouth. What do you say to the person who saved your life? What do you say to the person who is responsible for the existence of hope in the world? How do you come to terms with the fact that such a person feels confident enough in you to call you a friend, when you feel totally undeserving of such a title?

Maybe, you say none of that. Hiro swallows, hard, and speaks.

‘I, uh, ran into someone today. He was wearing Mondo’s coat.’

Makoto is one of the only ones, out of all of them, who does not flinch at the names of the fallen. 

‘What do you mean? He was wearing the coat when he died, so that's impossible.’

‘I know. He wasn't Mondo. I don't know who he was. It sort of hurts when I try to think about it.’

‘Wait a second. Can you be more descriptive?’

‘Huh? I don’t know. It was like looking at something totally unnatural. I thought maybe he was a ghost, because he tried to talk and I couldn’t hear him. Like, it was scary.’ 

That's when Makoto said something that surprised Hiro. That in and of itself is a rare occurrence. Not that Hiro is rarely surprised , which happens fairly regularly despite his visions. No, the surprising thing was to be surprised by Makoto, who is one of the only static forces in Hiro’s life. If given an option between two choices, Makoto will always choose the right one. If asked to believe in something or trust someone, he will agree, instantly. Makoto is sweet, naïve and predicable.

Hiro expected Makoto to say something like ‘there's nothing to be scared of’ or ‘how can I help?’ Instead Makoto says:

‘Did it seem like he knew you?’

‘What?’

‘Answer the question Hiro.’ 

‘I mean, yeah? He did.’

‘Hiro.’ Makoto says sadly ‘You remember how we forgot our friends, right?’

‘How could I forget?’ Hiro joked.

There's a long pause, after which Makoto says, ‘I found one of my friends. He seemed devastated to see me. Even though I wanted to remember and wanted to know him, I couldn't. I couldn't even learn his name. It was like the essence of him had been erased from my soul.’ 

‘Fuck. Makoto, I'm so sorry’ 

‘It was rough, but we're still trying to figure it out. I'm not gonna give up on someone who I used to call a friend. I'm confident that one day I will call him a friend again.’ 

‘Man, how are you always so confident with this stuff?’ 

Hiro feels like he can hear Makoto shrug over the line.

‘I don’t know. What I do know is that you seem to be in the same situation. You might be able to break through it easier than me, though, since you have access to some of your memories.’

Hiro’s felt on edge about this whole friend thing ever since Kyoko brought it up. The idea that he was once friends with a gang leader doesn't exactly inspire confidence within him. Then, another thought occurs.  
‘Wait, but that doesn't explain the coat. I mean it's definitely something to do with Mondo, right? Maybe this guy was friends with him, too.’

‘I think it's more than that, Hiro. Owada’s coat was a symbol of his leadership of the Crazy Diamonds’

‘This guy said something about the Diamonds too…’

Makoto seems to think for a moment. Sometimes he does that, goes quiet for a long time whilst he gathers his thoughts together. Then all at once, his words come bursting out of him, ready to strike.  
‘As far as we're aware, there was only ever one of the leader of the Diamonds, aside from Mondo. This may be hard to hear but I need you to do your best to listen.’

‘Okay? Sure, I'll try my best.’

‘Daiya Owada. Mondo thought he was dead, but still, I think that’s who he is. Daiya Owada.’

Hearing that name properly finally sets off fireworks in Hiro’s head. 

There was a kid on his street with that name, back when Hiro was young, too. They grew up with each other. He watched Daiya grow into a scrawny punk with a mean streak. He was tough because he had to be – but Hiro saw another side of him. Hiro watched him raise his baby brother into a man worthy of respect. Watched him get his ass kicked at Mario Kart, and refuse to eat spicy food. He had watched him recover, slowly and painfully, after his accident.

Daiya had been elated when he found out that Hiro and Mondo were going to be in the same class. He had made Hiro promise to look out for his kid brother.

‘I fucked up.’ Hiro says out loud, but the words do not encompass the weight of the guilt he feels.

PAST

When hero once again becomes aware that he is a person, not merely a collection of disjointed thoughts, it is extremely dark. For a moment, he does think he might be dead. But that is clearly not the case, since he is not a spectral entity wandering the earth forever cursed, haunting good, well-meaning fortune tellers. Instead, he realises, it is dark because his eyes are closed.

‘Hiro? Hiro, are you awake?’ 

That voice is familiar. It occurs to him that most voices he had heard in the last however long have been familiar, due to the fact that there are very few people still alive . At least it seemed that way. The boy certainly sounds female so here finds himself running through the list. Kyoko, Aoi, Toko… Nope. None of them…then who the fuck?

Oh wait! Hiro just remembered. He can totally just open his eyes. When he does, he realises that he is lying down, but above him he sees messy pink hair and tired brown eyes. A cigarette dangles limply between her lips. She’s crying, for some reason.

‘You had me worried there, kiddo.’ 

That’s…that’s his mom. That’s his mom!

‘Mom!’

Hiro surges upright faster than he should, but he couldn’t care less about the pain that shoots through his body. Wrapping his arms around Hiroko feels like coming home. Even if the world is ash, he couldn’t care less. She’s here, so he’s safe.

‘What, did you miss me or something?’ she chuckles, hugging him back with shaking limbs.

Hiro is shaking too. Over his mothers shoulder, he sees the wreck of the car he crashed. He sees ambulances, police helicopters, and military vehicles…camera crews.  
And he sees his friends.

Aoi, holding a young, crying boy. Her brother? Makoto, arms around his sister as his parents smile over them. Byakuya, introducing Toko to a bunch of people who…look exactly like him. How many Byakuya’s are there? It’s a little overwhelming, honestly. Its been so long since he saw this many people just walking about like everything’s normal.

‘Everyone’s safe…’ Hiro whispers, the rush of relief flowing through him like a calming water. ‘We made it.’

‘You did.’ His mother pulls back, looking him over. ‘I knew you would. Screw those smart-asses, my Hiro’s a survivor.’

‘And you? You’re okay?’

‘I’ve been worried sick, but yeah. I’m okay.’

Just then, one of the medic guys comes over. Apparently he passed out in the stress of the crash, but he’s more or less okay. They give him permission to walk around. He can see the reporters waving to get his attention, but he couldn’t give less of a shit.

Hiro can’t help but walk closers to the chasm’s edge. He can’t see the other side, but he can hear their wails. He sticks close to his mom. She leans heavily against him as Hiro struggles to take it all in.

‘This is thanks to you, you know.’ She whispers.

‘What do you mean?’

When Hiroko speaks again, she has fire in her eyes.

‘You predicted that something was coming. You didn’t know what, but you insisted we get out of the way. You were so adamant, that your headmaster began preparations for sealing the school, to preserve hope.’  
Hiro swallows, hard. Those words don’t feel true. He can’t believe them.

‘That’s…wow. I’m glad your okay, but my predictions aren’t exactly the most solid. The headmaster probably just saw the signs of what was coming.’

Hiroko places a hand on his shoulder, looking up into his face. She looks furious.

‘I’ll never forgive that bitch for what she did to you.’ She swears. ‘If she weren’t dead I would tear her to shreds.’

Hiro doesn’t know how to respond to that, but he doesn’t have to, because the others are running over. Soon he’s being introduced to more people than he will ever remember, as all of them are herded onto helicopters.  
As Hiro soars upwards, his hand holding his mother’s, he gets a good look at what they are calling ‘The Despair District’. The destruction is truly atrocious. Even now, smoke and pollution rise from the area in sickly waves. In the centre of it all, though he can’t see it from here, is Hope’s Peak Academy.

Aoi flips her middle-finger in the direction of the school. Hiro couldn’t agree more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey remember when Hiro couldn't remember who taught him how to drive so fast, or who he moved in with? Haha yeah weird.
> 
> Thanks again to everyone who's shown support for this fic!


	7. Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter! I probably would have posted this earlier, but its been a bit of a shit day. That said, thank you so so much for sticking with this little fic of mine! I hope you enjoy the conclusion!
> 
> Warnings: Choking, coping mechanisms, panic attack, going nonverbal whilst in a state of panic, survivors guilt (that can be perceived as suicidal in nature), guilt, questionable advice, murder mention, pollution mention

FUTURE

It’s almost a week before Hiro has the chance to talk to Daiya.

It’s not like he just has the phone number for the leader of the Crazy Diamonds. Its not the kind of thing you can google. He considers asking his mom, since apparently she’s still in contact with Daiya but…no. The idea of facing her right now makes his stomach feel like its in a blender. How could he look her in the eyes? How did he ever manage to?

If he’s really honest, there’s an amount of procrastination involved, too. Maybe its cowardly, but he really just wants to keep his head down and avoid this. So instead of trying to get in contact with that guy, with Daiya, he spends every second of every day trying not to think about it. He goes shopping, spends more money than he should. He takes clients like he needs them to breathe. He spends his evenings at Aoi’s, until she politely kicks him out. When he gets home, the bloodstain on his wall seems to cry out to him. He repaints his whole apartment, choking on the fumes. 

For the most part, he doesn’t sleep. When his eyes droop from exhaustion, he is cursed by visions. Visions of the past. Visions of the future. Interspersed with these are horrific nightmares, to the point that he can no longer tell the difference. One particularly vivid image is of two bears in long coats, seated at a dining table. They appear to be eating pancakes.

He tries not to think about it.

Hiro is almost surprised when the van shows up to collect him for his readings. He changes into his nicest outfit, stuffs a bag with as many of his supplies as he can carry, and goes without a word of complaint.  
The day progresses pretty normally, in a way that sets Hiro on edge. He hadn’t expected it to feel so normal, but he’s so used to working long hours that time flies. Sure, the clients are a little different, and the room a little more heavily guarded, but he’s reciting the same bullshit he always does. He even gets a couple of genuine visions, which is wild.

At about mid-day, there’s a knock at the threshold. Hiro doesn’t have a customer, so he’s swapping out his incense sticks when he looks up to see who is there. Daiya leans casually against the door frame, sharp eyes trained on Hiro.

The sight of him feels like being dunked in cold water. It’s the same man Hiro had met just a week before, and yet entirely different. Years of friendship, and of memories just out of reach, and of promises he did not keep tumble through his head so quickly that he cannot hope to catch them. Daiya raises an eyebrow in his direction.

‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’ He thinks for a second. ‘I’m not a ghost, by the way.’

‘I’m sorry!’ Hiro blurts.

‘What?’

Closing the door, Daiya comes to sit opposite him, knees crossed in a position that mirrors Hiro’s own. He has the same tired eyes and hollow-cheeks as before, though those features are absent from all of Hiro’s returned memories. He doesn’t have to guess why.

‘Why so glum, Hiro? Did you just give one of my guys some bad news?’ 

‘I- uh.’ Hiro stutters, his mind feeling fractured and broken.

Why can’t he speak? Its like his throat is blocked. A tightness in his chest increases, growing till even his limbs feel heavy. He wants to say something. He wants to say everything. It’s all stuck.

‘Yasu? What’s going on?’

Hiro shakes his head, helplessly.

‘Okay. Alright.’

Daiya leans back onto the palms of his hands, tilting his head. The picture of relaxation.

‘Let me know when you feel like talking. I’ve got a meeting at one though, so make it quick if you can.’

Hiro sits there, desperately trying to get his breathing to even out, whilst Daiya waits patiently. The guy doesn’t even look phased, while Hiro’s over here trying not to have a full-on breakdown. He doesn’t know the right words, but eventually, he feels pressured enough to just say something. Anything.

‘I remember.’ Hiro manages. Okay, good start. ‘I remember you.’

Daiya leans forward, bringing a thoughtful hand up to his chin. He runs his thumb nervously over a scar there. A habit he picked up after his accident, Hiro’s brain supplies. 

‘Really. Everything?’

‘Yes. Or, no? Its not like I know it all because, I haven’t been reminded of it all. But I know we were friends.’

‘We were.’

‘Were we close?’

‘Very.’

Hiro takes a shaky breath, nodding. Why is it so cold in here? He can hardly feel the tips of his fingers, and he’s shivering like crazy. Or, shaking?

‘You don’t exactly look happy about that, bud. Should I be offended?’

‘No, fuck no! Daiya… I just.’ Hiro drops his face into his hands, wanting to scream. ‘I’m just so sorry.’

‘What about, Hiro?’ his voice is serious, stern. 

Something in Hiro just breaks open, and he begins to cry properly. Whatever was blocking his throat seems to get dislodged and he can speak again, and suddenly, all he can do is speak. He looks up as it comes tumbling out of him. He stares at everything except for Daiya.

‘I’m so stupid, I’m so fucking stupid.’ There are tears rolling downs his face, but he hardly notices them over the hot-and-cold, roiling pain in his chest. ‘It’s all my fault. Mondo was a kid. They were kids, Daiya! They deserved to live! And then I got out, and I’m a fucking con-man idiot, who would have sold them all out at the drop of a hat.’ He’s heaving now, each word squeezed out between ugly sobs that just won’t stop. ‘I’m selfish, and useless, and- and I deserved to die in there!’

‘Woah, okay, that’s a lot.’ Hiro finally forces himself to look at Daiya. The guy looks shocked, like he really wasn’t prepared for this, but it quickly dissolves. He stares at Hiro with the intense focus of a man on a mission.

‘Listen to me man, I really need you to hear this.’ Daiya looks him dead in the eyes, passion twisting his face into a serious expression. ‘People don’t always get what they deserve. If they did, then none of that killing bullcrap would have happened. If something bad happens to you, that doesn’t make you bad, it just makes the thing bad.’ He pauses, breathing deeply. ‘Mondo…Mondo didn’t deserve to die. But you don’t deserve all that trauma, either. You’re a good dude. People don’t always get what they deserve but…you deserve to be happy, Hiro.’

‘You don’t.’ he gasps, trying desperately to get air and speak at the same time. ‘You don’t blame me? I voted for him! I could have – I should have voted for myself, like Taka. Maybe Mondo could have graduated! Maybe he’d still be-‘

‘Shut up.’

Daiya glares at him so fiercely that Hiro’s jaw snaps shut with a click. Ugly tears are still streaming from his eyes. He’s never felt anything this fiercely, and he’s so overwhelmed he’s trembling, nails digging into his own arms.

‘Don’t fucking say that, okay? You think I want this? You think I wasn’t praying that he’d get away with it, screaming at the TV and begging to see him again?’ Daiya makes a frustrated noise, running a hand through his hair. ‘But when he- when Chihiro died, I didn’t blame him. I blamed myself, Hiro, for all that manly promise bullshit I got him believing in. His whole motivation was me.’

‘B-but you weren’t even there. Daiya, it wasn’t your fault!’

‘I know that now.’ His hands clench into fists, as a determined look settles over his weary features. ‘Its her fault for implanting those lies in his head. Manipulating his thoughts so he he felt guilty over something that never happened. She killed him, and she killed Chihiro. I can’t blame you Hiro, because if I do, I also have to blame him. Everything that happened in that shitshow is on Junko’s shoulders. My bro…that wasn’t his fault. So what happened to him, that wasn’t your fault, either. I have to believe that. I have to.’

Daiya reaches out slowly, and grabs Hiro’s hand. The touch is all at once familiar and completely new. Hiro nods, and tries to pull himself together. Positive thinking, right? Just believe Daiya. This guy has been through a lot, and Hiro wants to stop crying. He should be the one comforting Daiya. He feels like he has to be strong, has to help. He just can’t.

‘I’m sorry.’ Hiro sobs. ‘I don’t know if I can believe that just yet. You should be mad at me.’

Daiya squeezes his hand, smiling tiredly. 

‘After my accident, Taka told me something that completely changed my life. He came to visit, and whilst bro was out of the room he said this: sometimes its good to be strong for others, but to truly prosper, you have to be weak for yourself.’

‘Taka…he was a wise little dude.’

‘Nah, he was weird as fuck. That sentence barely made sense. But he had a point, Hiro. He knew that healing sometimes involves hurting. You can't be strong all the time, its okay to cry. By the looks of things, you've been holding this shit in for a while.' He stands up, pulling Hiro to his feet with him. 'Its okay if you aren’t quite there yet. Shit, I don’t know that I’m even there yet. Its alright if you don’t forgive yourself today. But at some point, your going to have to.’

Eventual inner peace…that sounds nice. 

‘You know what?’ Hiro says, finally breaking into a shaky grin. ‘I can work with that.’

PAST

Over the next few weeks, everything just gets weirder and weirder. Interviews, fan mail, banquets, hospital visits and police interrogations. Hiro can hardly keep up with the whiplash between people praising him and treating him like a criminal. 

They ask a lot of questions about Sakura. Whether it was attempted murder, whether he was trying to kill her. Supposedly none of them would be facing any real charges, given the circumstances, but they need the whole truth. Hiro has had enough lies to last a lifetime, so gives it freely.

The hospital staff were more concerned for him than he’d expected. Makoto was worst off, having fallen all that way, and Hina had a few injuries that needed treating. But they wanted to check for internal bleeding after he had been beaten up so much, and were worried about disinfecting his cuts from the car crash. They also treated a number of long gashes on his back that he’d gotten from the sharp edges of the robo-justice costume.  
When all was said and done, Hiro was discharged with a clean record and a whole bunch of money.

Oh yeah! The money! See, there had been this whole charity thing set up to fund the rescue efforts, but since those didn’t really work out, the remaining funds were divided equally between the six of them. It isn’t enough to pay off his debts, but Hiro has no intention of doing that anyway. This is the most money he’s had in years – it is totally only fair that he gets to spend it all. He considers mooching a little more off the others, especially since Byakuya definitely doesn’t need it. But nah, that’s in the past, he’s moving forward. Or, he will be eventually.

For a while, they all rent a big, crumbling student-squat and sleep in the same room. It’s the only option that doesn’t feel like cutting off a limb. Hiro cooks, and Byakuya plans, and they make it through each day like wading through seaweed. Hagakure quickly predicts that there are only two paths. One is that they soon won’t be able to stand the sight of each other, after everything that happened. Hiro almost killed Sakura, Byakuya messed up a crime scene, Hina tried to kill all of them. And then there’s Kyoko’s secrecy, and all the people Makoto sent to death with his deductions. It’s a lot – so much that Hiro’s not sure you could fit that much water under a bridge.  
Except that, of course, there’s a second path. Hiro’s favourite path. The path they end up taking. They are always going to need each other, and have each other. These bonds won’t break through separation or time. So of course, they have to move on eventually. Move on, and move out.

Hiro buys himself this fancy old house in the newly named New Hope City, converts the upstairs into a flat and the downstairs into a brand spanking new clairvoyancy business. Fills up a room with crystals and candles – getting Kyoko’s help so he doesn’t buy any more fakes. He even gets an assistant, which is wicked, and within a day his schedule for the next month is fully booked.

The others do pretty well for themselves, too. Byakuya takes over his family business, but wordlessly dedicates a whole new section of the company to the restoration of the Despair District. Naturally, Makoto is president of that whole thing. He’s got all these plans to give hope to the people that live there and rehouse them and stuff. Most of it goes over Hiro’s head, but it sounds cool.

Makoto moves back in with his family, but he doesn’t go alone. He’s actually living with Kyoko now, who is still doing her detective thing (Hagakure can’t understand why she’d want to see more bodies, but go figure) and the two of them seem pretty happy. They are still in the city, which is great! Actually, all of them are, except Toko. She spends half her time in a small, writer’s cottage she bought out in the countryside. She’ll go out there and live in total isolation, pumping out books like its nothing. Nobody's allowed to disturb her, not even Byakuya. Hiro reads the trashy ones, but some of her new fantasy novels go a little over his head. She still visits a lot though, and has a flat in the same building as Hina. It’s nice to see the two of them get along.

Hina…she struggles the most. But struggling at least means she doesn’t give up. She gets a small, cosy two-bedroom apartment and turns one of them into a gym. She trains like a beast, and doesn’t work for a year. Hiro tries to be there for her. He thinks they might be becoming friends? Its weird, because she totally accused him of murder, but you know. Bygones being gone, or something.

Eventually she burns all her Olympic invitations and gives up on competition entirely. Hina becomes a swimming instructor, specialising in one-on-one training with people who really need help. Those recovering from injuries, those with a fear of water or adults who just never learned. She’s great at what she does. Hiro’s super proud of her.

Bit by bit, they all make it. They survived, but more importantly, they get to live.

FUTURE

It’s snowing.

It’s the first clean snow in years, due to the efforts of Makoto’s team. Cleaning up the pollution Junko left behind was no easy task, but she had ultimately been her own undoing. The hope everyone felt upon seeing the six survivors again reignited humanity’s vision for a better future. They can believe that the future is bright.

Hiro doesn’t have to believe it. He knows it.

Hina and Toko are engaged in a fierce snowman building contest against a few of their (new? old?) friends. Toko keeps complaining bitterly about the cold, but there’s a smile on her face and her cheeks are almost glowing read as she and Hina work together. Just looking at Hina is enough to make Hiro want to cry. She’s come so far, and she’s doing so well. Her bright pink coat stands out against the white snow, as she confidently and enthusiastically tells the world that she’s happy, and here to stay.

Not everyone is so cheery about the snow, of course. Byakuya refused to wear sufficient layers, and stands there shivering in a simple grey woollen coat. The coffee-cup in his hands is held like a lifeline. He seems to be complaining about something, though if his exaggerated gestures are anything to go by, he isn’t really that upset. Some people just like a good moan. Kyoko is laughing at his sour expression, bringing a mitten up to her face to stifle her mirth. She smiles a lot more these days, even if she would deny it adamantly if asked. Hiro notices that she’s surreptitiously kicking snow onto one of Byakuya’s boots, and that his foot is almost entirely buried at this point. He doesn’t mention it.

Makoto is not far away, buying hot-chocolate for everyone from one of those cute, wooden stalls. Hiro accepts his gratefully when its offered, and can’t help but ruffle Makoto’s hair as he goes past. It provokes a grin so blindingly joyful that Hiro is sure he could never feel despair again. Hiro watches the hope of mankind diligently hand out paper cups to everybody present, even those who are new to the group. Each and every person seems to brighten as he crosses paths with them.

Hiro is sat on a bench, watching it all unfold. He doesn't need to try and protect them anymore. He's happy to sit back and let them live their lives, as long as he gets to be a part of those lives, too. Not that he’s too old to join in with the fun, though! He just wants to take his time, and enjoy this moment. It also gives him a window to prepare before the snowball fight that he will be starting very shortly. Daiya, who is sat next to him, nudges him in the arm.

‘Have you noticed Kyoko is slowly burying Byakuya?’

‘Yeah. Good for her.’

‘We could use that to get the jump on him, when the great snow-war breaks out.’

Hiro brings up a hand to stroke his chin, comically.

‘Maybe, maybe. Though I was thinking we might get Makoto whilst he’s distracted handing out goodies.’

‘He gave you free hot chocolate!’

‘Ah, yes, but he forgot the marshmallows.’

Daiya giggles, and as the sound rings out in Hiro’s ears, he feels a glowing feeling rise up within him. Unafraid, he lefts the vision take hold, staring out at the wonderful, swirling expanse of glittering snow before him.   
Reflected in each snowflake is a different possibility. Faces peer at him through the vail, wondering what he might do. Time is splayed out and readable, like a book. It would be so easy to skip to the ending, to take a peek at what awaits them all. 

Hiro closes his eyes, allowing snowflakes to collect on his long ashes. He doesn’t need a vision to confirm what he already knows. Things aren’t always going to be easy, and the good times won’t last forever. There will be good times, though, and they will be worth the wait.

When he opens his eyes, Daiya winks at him, and pulls himself to his feet. Hiro hurries to help him up, before they each reach under the bench to arm themselves from their concealed snowball stockpile. He scans his potential targets, eventually settling on Aoi. She has seen what he is up to, and has a snowball of her own.

‘Charge!’ Hiro yells, running forward, doing his best not to slip in the snow as frost bites at his cheeks.

Soon, it is complete mayhem. Byakuya is ordering around a team with startling efficiency, whilst Kyoko keeps pelting unsuspecting victims in the back of the head. Toko and Aoi stand back-to-back in the middle of it all, a flurry of movement and echoing laughter. Hiro laughs, too, when he notices that Makoto is trying to get everybody to stop fighting and get long. It isn’t until a snowball hits him in the face, that he realises that this is a distraction tactic.

‘Didn’t see that one coming, did you?’ Makoto teases, beaming.

Being able to read the future suits Hiro just fine, and his past will always be a part of him. But for now? He’s more than happy to live in the present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they all lived happily ever after!!! Well, sort of...  
> I actually have some ideas for a sequel, and might do some one-shots in this universe at some point. But for now, the story is done! I hope you enjoyed, and thank you to every commenter and kudos-er! Its so nice to get support for this very self-indulgent story.
> 
> Take care, everyone!!!


End file.
